Welcome back to the Weird, the Wild, & the Wicked. Today is Thursday and that means it’s time to start flashing! This is Week 222 of #ThursThreads, the challenge that ties tales together. Want to keep up each week? Check out the #ThursThreads #flashfiction group on Facebook.

Need the rules? Read on.

Here's how it works:

The prompt is a line from the previous week's winning tale.

The prompt can appear ANYWHERE in your story and is included in your word count.

The prompt must be used as is. It can be split, but no intervening words can be inserted or tenses changed.

Rules to the Game:

This is a Flash Fiction challenge, which means your story must be a minimum of 100 words, maximum of 250.

The story must be new writing, not a snippet from something published elsewhere with the prompt added.

Incorporate the prompt anywhere into your story (included in your word count).

Post your story in the comments section of this post

Include your word count (or be excluded from judging)

Include your Twitter handle or email (so we know how to find you)

The challenge is open 7 AM to 8 PM Mountain Time

The winner will be announced on Friday, depending on how early the judge gets up.

How it benefits you:

You get a nifty cool badge to display on your blog or site (because we're all about promotion - you know you are!)

All stories written herein are the property (both intellectual and physical) of the authors. Now, away with you, Flash Fiction Fanatics, and show us your #ThursThreads. Good luck!

Siobhan Muir

6/30/2016 09:33:43 am

“Mmm. So sweet, Svanhild.” He grinned at her as she snorted.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been referred to as ‘sweet.’”

Balder tipped his head as he pushed a tendril of hair behind her ear. “Maybe I need to test the theory once more. I won’t be able to say with accuracy unless I try.”

“You really think you’ll find me ‘sweet’?”

“Not until I know for sure.” He winked and leaned in for another kiss, but the timer on the oven went off and he sat back. “Saved by the bell. Let’s check to cookies, then I shall conduct my sweetness experiment.”

She laughed and helped him pull out the pans from the oven. The cookies looked like heaven on a plate, each about four inches across. Despite the overwhelmingly sexy man in the kitchen, her mouth watered for gooey chocolate and dough. She eyed him for a moment. *What would it be like to have gooey chocolate and Balder?* She didn’t know a mischievous smile had curled her lips until he raised his eyebrows at her.

“What are you thinking, Svanhild?”

Her smiled broadened. “I think we should test one of the cookies. You know, just to see if it’s as good as you say.” She raised her chin. “And I think we should test it on you.”

“On me?”

“Oh, yes. On you, Balder.” She took him by the hand, grabbed the bowl with the leftover dough, and headed for the bedroom.

He spares his twin a dispassionate glance before shrugging. “I’m a businessman, Lily. I need a home suitable for my social status.”

Lilith raises a challenging brow at her brother. “And the only one you found good enough is the Evans’ House? In this big city of Chicago there was no other place more suited for you than that house?”

“Do you know what poetic justice is?” he asks her in a tone that never fails to increase her ire. Without waiting for her answer, he continues. “It’s when you get to own the house that you were once thrown out of because you were deemed unworthy of stepping through its doors.”

“But what of Elena?” she asks, her eyes accusatory. “Why don’t you realize that your actions are hurting the woman you love?”

“Loved,” he emphasizes, his voice turning cold with anger and hatred. “It was just a stupid infatuation really. And anyway, I couldn’t care less about anyone who’s not a part of my family.”

His words make Lilith gasp. “You’re doing this intentionally?” She looks disgusted by his callousness. “She’s already heartbroken over her dad’s health, Ryan. Stop this madness, brother.”

He shakes his head slowly. “Not yet. Not until I know for sure that she even has a heart to be broken.”

Pity drips from Lily’s voice as she remarks quietly, “It’ll be poetic if you end up falling for her again, brother.”

“Helen you’ve been here for days you have to leave now and get some sleep.”
"Not I know for sure.”
“There comes a time when you have to put yourself first,” Nestra insisted.
“Did Paris hesitate to help me? If I’m here I can help him.”
“How are you a healer?”
“My love will heal him.”
“Helen, you are another’s wife.”
“Have you never wanted someone so much that if they were not with you, you’d die?”
“No one has eyes for anyone else but you sister. Your husband is a powerful man. He’ll kill him if he finds you here.”
“I can’t leave him.”
“You’ve had a raw deal all your life. Your beauty has made men fight over you; but it has brought you nothing but pain. It’s time to take your life back.”
“How?”
“Poison your husband and flee with your lover,” Nestra answered.
“It might be too late.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My husband used his greatest warlock to bespell Paris.”
“That’s why the witch was here?”
“She unlocked the spell; but she said there could be consequences.”
“What consequences?”
“I don’t know.”

Paris stirred and his eyes opened.

”I’m hungry,” Paris said reaching over grabbing Nestra’s throat and draining her dry.
“Join me my love drink of my blood and then will slay your husband,” Paris said nibbling at Helena’s neck and then offered his wrist.

Helena drank deep and so the first vampires were born and Helena’s husband became their food.

i don;t know how this happened but it removed until so in the key phrase so here it is posted again with that
“Helen you’ve been here for days you have to leave now and get some sleep.”
""Not until I know for sure.”
“There comes a time when you have to put yourself first,” Nestra insisted.
“Did Paris hesitate to help me? If I’m here I can help him.”
“How are you a healer?”
“My love will heal him.”
“Helen, you are another’s wife.”
“Have you never wanted someone so much that if they were not with you, you’d die?”
“No one has eyes for anyone else but you sister. Your husband is a powerful man. He’ll kill him if he finds you here.”
“I can’t leave him.”
“You’ve had a raw deal all your life. Your beauty has made men fight over you; but it has brought you nothing but pain. It’s time to take your life back.”
“How?”
“Poison your husband and flee with your lover,” Nestra answered.
“It might be too late.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My husband used his greatest warlock to bespell Paris.”
“That’s why the witch was here?”
“She unlocked the spell; but she said there could be consequences.”
“What consequences?”
“I don’t know.”
Paris stirred and his eyes opened.
”I’m hungry,” Paris said reaching over grabbing Nestra’s throat and draining her dry.
“Join me my love drink of my blood and then will slay your husband,” Paris said nibbling at Helena’s neck and then offered his wrist.
Helena drank deep and so the first vampires were born and Helena’s husband became their food.
247 words
@SweetSheil

Dom moved from window to window, checking the perimeter. Nothing moved but the waves and clouds scudding across the moon. He relaxed, but only slightly. Glancing over his shoulder, his breath hitched. Peni was hunched down between the couch and the overturned granite coffee table. Her nimble fingers laced Luiza into the backpack carrier. Luca was already installed in his. She had a real backpack at her feet—diapers and necessary paraphernalia. Her face was set—determined and focused. Until she raised her eyes and met his gaze. She was terrified. Shit.

“Peni…” He didn’t know what to say, what to tell her. This was not a time for platitudes.

“Is it time to go?”

That was a question he could answer. “Not until I know for sure my guys are close.

Clutching both children, she shuddered but her voice was strong as she declared, “He cannot have Luca.”

“And he won’t touch you or Luiza either, Peni. I promise.” He wanted to promise her all sorts of things but couldn’t until they were clear. Until Theodor Vasile was behind bars—or dead. Yeah, he really liked the sound of that. He wondered how much he’d owe Duke for doing the job?

I found Wanderlust on-line. Whit Wanderlust-Private Eye–I Dig Until the Hole in Your Heart is Exposed.

“Who is he?” I squeak out, like a mouse in a cat’s mouth. The slim fellow in the photo seems quite young. Sue has already waved fair-thee-well to forty, her curves long ago settled in for a downhill ride.

I walked the cobblestone streets of Rue des Thermopyles forgetting for the moment that I was leaving Paris in one week. My new assignment came as a surprise. Why was the Agency sending me to the United States? I hadn't told Jean-François though I had wanted to. Agency policy.

Only yesterday we had met in Café de Paris. It had been three months since we last saw each other.

"Will you report him to your division chief?" Solange asked.

"Not until I know for sure."

Jean-François was not only my lover. We'd been partners working the same assignment in Paris last summer, sharing an apartment in Saint-Germain des Près. I never suspected he might be a double agent until after we were abruptly ordered to end our surveillance of the Russian diplomat whose apartment was visible from ours.

I walked through Le Marais lost in my thoughts. I never saw the two men until they pushed me toward the black van waiting at the curb, covering my face as they forced me inside.

Gunshots rang out as the can pulled away. I struggled but couldn't stand. They had tied my hands and my ankles.

#ThursThreads Week 222 is now CLOSED. Thanks to everyone who wrote this week and I hope to catch you next week.

Barbe

6/30/2016 08:03:21 pm

The birds were particularly vocal today, and the air was muggy. Storm was on its way. There wasn’t much wind, so it seemed very close and hot. He wondered about the upstairs windows and if they were closed or not. He didn’t dare leave the living room right now. The inert body of his wife sprawled partially on the couch.

He had arrived home from work to find her there, and had immediately gone to her, speaking her name over and over. No answer. He checked for a pulse, worrying that it was his own pulse that he was feeling in his fingers, but finally deciding there was a faint pulse. He dialled 911, reporting what he had walked in on, feeling already guilty for a crime that he didn’t commit. The police always look at the husband first, he thought. Was it a drug overdose? She didn’t “do” drugs, to his knowledge, but he’d watched enough crime shows to wonder about that possibility.

There was a loud crack, followed by a dull roar. He froze for a moment then realized the thunderstorm had arrived, but the police hadn’t. The 911 operator kept talking to him and he wished she would shut up and let him hang up the phone. She had no intention of doing that. He wanted to check the windows, but thought “What’s a wet windowsill. I can’t leave, not until I know for sure.”

“Okay, they are here!” he said to the operator. He hung up.

249 Words
barbara.crabtree@shaw.ca

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About Me

Siobhan Muir lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and writes kick-ass adventure with hot sex for men and women to enjoy. She believes in happily-ever-after, redemption, and communication, all of which you'll find in her romance stories of all genres.